Asha is a dragon-slayer. Reviled by the very people she’s sworn to protect, she kills to atone for the wicked deed she committed as a child – one that almost destroyed her city, and left her with a terrible scar. But protecting her father’s kingdom is a lonely destiny: no matter how many dragons she kills, her people still think she’s wicked.

So to unite the fractured kingdom, she must marry Jarek, her father’s cruel commandant. As the wedding day approaches, Asha longs for freedom.

Just when it seems her fate is sealed, the king offers her a way out: her freedom in exchange for the head of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard. And the only person standing in her way is a defiant slave boy . . .

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli is the first book in a fantastic new high fantasy series. It’s adventurous, gripping and fun, with fantastic characters that you grow to love, and a really unique premise that I marvelled at.

Asha is a princess but has grown up being feared and despised. When she was a child, she rebelled and told one of the ancient ‘stories’. As a result, the First Dragon Kozu fought her off and burned her and half the city. She brought upon the death of many people in her kingdom, and the scar on her body is a daily reminder of her foolishness. To compensate, she’s the fiercest, most deadly dragon slayer in the land and after every conquer she brings home the head of the dragon to her father, the King.

“Asha’s pulse quickened. She ducked out from under him and rose to her feet. Putting all her focus back on the dragon in the trees, she sloshed through the spring. If she could catch it, maybe she could tame it. And if she could tame it, maybe she could teach it not to follow her into the city.”

Asha really grows over the course of the novel. Initially, she’s rude, arrogant and spoilt. But she’s also intelligent, strong and capable. She becomes a driving force in the book and a really strong protagonist. She is also drawn to the stories of the past, sometimes using them to lure in dragons before she kills them. But those stories are what killed her mother, and she knows that just using them is a crime.

“Asha lured the dragon with a story.”

The Last Namsara is rich with Figaard mythology and ancient legends and stories, with pretty much every second chapter being a story from centuries ago. It all flows really well, and I found myself just as intrigued by the history of the book as I was in the present storyline.

I adored this book, reading it in one day. The Last Namsara portrays courage, loyalty and the importance of family and love — there are multiple layers to this novel, and the more you read of it, the more you come to love these characters and this world.

Additionally, The Last Namsara is a coming of age novel. Asha, once feared and despised, fulfils her purpose in this novel as Iskari — a ceremonial warrior named for a ‘deadly’ God. And later in the novel, Asha becomes something much more. She becomes the key to settling all unease in the kingdom, and along with her brother Dax and the slave boy Torwin, they are able to work towards correcting all injustices.

I did find the relationship between Asha and slave boy Torwin to be slightly odd and unlikeable. Their ‘love’ for each other seems to develop rather quickly, and doesn’t seem to be relatable or believable. For the majority of the novel, Asha only refers to him as a slave, even though she knows his name. Asha comes across as quite disrespectful at times, and even though that illustrates how far she outranks him, it’s a little jolting for the reader and it’s hard for us to really cheer for them as a couple when she treats him so terribly. Their relationship is so unbalanced that it’s hard to really push past their character dynamics and their exchanges.

“He’ll go to the pit tomorrow and never come out,” Dax said. As if a slave dying in the pit was supposed to elicit her sympathy. Slaves died in the pit all the time.
Asha shook her head in disbelief. “That is where criminal slaves belong.”

The Last Namsara is rich with storytelling and history, beautifully written and expertly illustrated. Despite some flaws — particularly with Torwin’s character — I did really love this book and I’m desperate to read the sequel next year.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Namsara
Kristen Ciccarelli
October 2017
Hachette Publishers Australia

These are the things Lux knows:
She is an Artist.
She is lucky.
She is broken.

These are the things she doesn’t know:
What happened over the summer.
Why she ended up in hospital.
Why her memories are etched in red.

Desperate to uncover the truth, Lux’s time is running out. If she cannot piece together the events of the summer and regain control of her fractured mind, she will be taken away from everything and everyone she holds dear.

If her dreams don’t swallow her first.

The Taste of Blue Light by Lydia Ruffles is a young adult novel about a young woman’s search for the truth. Lux has to search deep into her mind to remember what happened last Summer, and find out why her mind is so fractured.

This book is incandescent and at times, heartbreaking. The reader is kept in the dark — just like Lux — so with every new development and memory, we’re desperately trying to piece it all together to find out what happened to her over the summertime.

“Since I blacked out, the slightest thing seems to aggravate my brain and fill it with fire.”

Lux is not in control, and her friends struggle to help her. This book is as much about trauma and memory loss, as it is about self-discovery.

Following a traumatic event in the summer that Lux can’t remember, she suffers from terrible migraines and short bursts of rage throughout the day. Sometimes she’s verbally aggressive, and sometimes she’s physically aggressive. And she has no way of stopping it or controlling it.

She also doesn’t sleep too well, and when she does, she has nightmares and wakes up screaming. The Taste of Blue Light examines the relationship between Lux and those around her — her family and friends and also a new boy that enters her life. This book explores what it’s like for someone who is suffering mentally, and how that can have a ripple affect on the people around them.

“My stomach is chewing on itself when I wake up, as if I’ve had a fight with someone but can’t remember who.”

I found the novel to be a little slow, my concentration waning. For a long time, I wondered where this book was going, and despite the fact that Lux is intended to be an unreliable narrator with cloudy memories, I found myself lost in the plot a fair bit. Additionally, I found it unrealistic that Lux wouldn’t have found out what happened to her (no spoilers) considering the rest of the country would’ve known. I find it hard to believe that she wouldn’t have accidentally found out.

In saying that, the opening couple of chapters are really strong and draw the reader in. We come to understand Lux’s ‘voice’ and her characterisation, and the characters and their interactions with each other are definitely the strongest part of this book.

I recommend this book to fans of young adult literature, and perhaps mystery novels. This is not a thriller but it does feel a bit like a guessing game because the reader is trying to piece together all the information to find out what happened to Lux.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Taste of Blue Light
Lydia Ruffles
September 2017
Hachette Book Publishers

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone…except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

Renegades by Marissa Meyer is a young adult fantasy novel with a large cast of characters and a long array of special abilities.

Nova’s parents and infant sister are murdered when she is six years old. She is unharmed, but she blames the Renegades — superheroes who protect their city — because they were supposed to protect her family and they failed to save them in time.

Fast forward ten years later, and Nova is planning to infiltrate the Renegades and enact revenge on them for failing her family all those years ago.

“One cannot be brave who has no fear.”

Nova’s power is that she can induce sleep merely by touching someone. She’s also an insomniac, and is incredible at combat and defence. She’s confident, fit and self-assured, and she’s a fantastic protagonist who really drives the story forward and keeps the reader engaged.

“The Renegades cared about finding the best prodigies to make their organisation stronger, smarter, better. If she got in, all she would have to do was persuade them that she was worth keeping, and no one would care about her past or her connections. They wouldn’t think to dig any deeper until it was too late.”

The world building is really detailed and believable, and the combat scenes are described well enough to be easily followed, but not too much so that the reader feels like they’re reading a movie script. This book would definitely translate really well on the big screen, but it’s also a really fun book and Marissa Meyer has done a really great job of alternating the intimate third person point of view between Nova and Adrian (a Renegade).

Nova and Adrian are both hiding something from their teammates, and after a while the reader wonders how those kids are so foolish that they haven’t picked up on it yet. It’s so obvious that Nova isn’t on their side, and it’s so incredibly apparent that Adrian is actually Sentinel (his alter ego). At times, I actually cringed with how awkward their cover ups were.

“Nova turned her wrist from side to side, feeling the start of a grin. New tech, a new gadget. Finally, they were speaking her language. But then, a thought occurred to her that smothered that first twinge of excitement. Technology like that had to include a tracking device. Which meant, so long as she wore it, the Renegades would know just where to find her.”

When I think about this book, I realise that not a lot actually happened in it. There was only one ‘mission’ and it was for the characters to surveillance a library. Sure, things go wrong, but at the end of the day, this book is certainly more character driven and more ‘world building’ than it is actual plot. And considering that the book is almost 600 pages, I am really surprised by that.

Additionally, it was super difficult to keep up with all the different characters mentioned and their abilities. It took me a good 50 pages to grasp the world and who was good and who was bad, and how their stories correlated.

In saying that, I loved this book. I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened, and despite the fact that there wasn’t much plot, I still really enjoyed the novel. My hypothesis is that book 2 is going to be much more action-packed than Renegades is, and and that’s okay. I’m happy to stick around if it means I’m set up for book 2.

I recommend this to comic book fans and people who love superhero movies. This has a very ‘superhero movie’ feel to it, with unique abilities and fun characters and a really great world.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

When Earth intercepts a message from a long-extinct alien race, it seems like the solution the planet has been waiting for. The Undying’s advanced technology has the potential to undo environmental damage and turn lives around, and Gaia, their former home planet, is a treasure trove waiting to be uncovered.

For Jules Addison and his fellow scholars, the discovery of an alien culture offers unprecedented opportunity for study… as long as scavengers like Amelia Radcliffe don’t loot everything first. Mia and Jules’ different reasons for smuggling themselves onto Gaia put them immediately at odds, but after escaping a dangerous confrontation with other scavvers, they form a fragile alliance.

In order to penetrate the Undying temple and reach the tech and information hidden within, the two must decode the ancient race’s secrets and survive their traps. But the more they learn about the Undying, the more their presence in the temple seems to be part of a grand design that could spell the end of the human race…

Unearthed is the first book in a brand new duology by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, described best as ‘Lara Craft and Indiana Jones teaming up in space’.

I love the setting of this novel, and how fun it was to read. This is an adventure novel set in space, but there’s also a touch of romance in there. Jules and Amelia have great chemistry, growing close over the course of the novel and working together to solve the mystery.

Both Amelia and Jules have troubled history that’s driving them to better understand this ancient alien culture. They meet in the abandoned temples of Planet Gaia — Amelia has illegally gained passage to this planet as a scavenger and she is looking for anything she can sell in order to save her sister. Jules, a young, black English archaeologist, is desperate to find and solve some of the many mysteries that Gaia holds. His father always hypothesised that there were many clues inside Gaia — clues left by the coded messages of the Undying.

“My father’s always told me that my integrity matters more than any other part of me, and he’s shown his over and over, in the face of unbearable pressure, to protect even those who don’t want his protection.”
JULES

This book is filled with plenty of riddles and puzzles, and any reader who loves solving mysteries will devour this book. Anyone who has read Amie & Meagan’s previous series will also love Unearthed. The dialogue and banter between the characters is really fun and hilarious, and the two characters compliment each other really well.

The ending of this book will have you desperate for the sequel— Amie and Meagan have done a stellar job of setting up the characters and their relationship, and drawing the reader in. We become heavily invested in their stories, and the ending of the book (no spoilers!) is such a cliffhanger that the reader will be so excited for Book 2 next year.

“I’m double-checking the bands of my climbing harness and listening with half an ear while Jules talks to himself. Every chance he gets he starts scribbling in his little journal, working through ideas aloud and staring at pictures of glyphs from his wrist unit.”

I loved that Jules and Mia were knowledgable in some really untraditional things for this genre. Physically, they’re not really strong, but they’re both really intelligent and they use things like maths, linguistics and music to solve the puzzles in the temple. It’s quite refreshing to read in this kind of setting and I really enjoyed following along as they solved the mysteries and progressed to the next stage of the puzzle.

“I lead the way for a while. Not every room in this place is a puzzle requiring Jules’ expertise, and while I can’t read the glyphs, I am starting to know what their patterns indicate. Like Jules said, the glyphs are based on math, and once I started to recognise the equation for their language, their simpler instructions – step here, don’t walk there – aren’t hard to translate.”

The plot did unfold in a rather predictable way, at some points. There were some moments where I saw what was coming next, or was unsurprised when particular moments of betrayal happened. I did feel like there could’ve been stronger world building in the book, particularly at the beginning when we first learn that Amelia and Jules are on this alien planet. At times, I felt a bit confused about the connection between this alien planet and Earth. After a while, I just pushed my confusion aside so that I could keep reading.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’m really keen to see how the story ends in book two. I recommend this to fans of Amie & Meagan’s, but also YA fans and young readers who love to read thrillers and adventure novels.

Astrid Katy Smythe is beautiful, smart and popular. She’s a straight-A student and a committed environmental activist. She’s basically perfect. Hiro is the opposite of perfect. He’s slouchy, rude and resentful. Despite his brains, he doesn’t see the point of school.

But when Astrid meets Hiro at the shopping centre where he’s wrangling shopping trolleys, he doesn’t recognise her because she’s in disguise – as a lobster. And she doesn’t set him straight.

Astrid wants to change the world, Hiro wants to survive it. But ultimately both believe that the world needs to be saved from itself. Can they find enough in common to right all the wrongs between them?

Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson is a romantic comedy about trying to make the planet a better place. The novel also explores love, friendship, family and the importance of re-assessing your expectations and assumptions about others.

The protagonist of the book, Astrid, is smart, brave, and determined. She’s also incredibly passionate about the environment and she wishes that everyone else who lived in Valentine took better care of it. Hiro, who is the complete opposite to Astrid, provides quite a bit of hilarity in the book. He’s witty, sarcastic and observant, and underneath a cold, withdrawn exterior, he’s actually a really lovely guy.

“We hadn’t talked much about our relationship outside the Victory Garden. We didn’t talk to each other at school, except for in the garden during Hiro’s detentions. I hadn’t told anyone I was seeing Hiro, and I assumed he hadn’t told his friends about me.”

The premise of Green Valentine felt very unique, and very fun. At first, a book about an environmentalist girl and a boy who is really good at gardening sounds a bit boring. But it’s so much more than that. It’s about learning to drop your assumptions about people, and the importance of understanding that some people are different to you and that’s probably not going to change. You can’t force your values and opinions onto someone and expect them to adopt those views.

“We carried full plates into the dining room. I couldn’t believe it had all come together so quickly and easily. There was pickled zucchini and eggplant next to a bowl of plump purple olives. Maria had cooked the pasta we’d made and mixed it with a simple tomato, garlic and basil sauce.”

This book also promotes diversity. Whilst Astrid is a white girl from a middle-class family, Hiro is half-Japanese and half-Italian. His sister is gay. Astrid’s best friend Dev is also gay, and is Indian. I definitely felt like a lot of readers would be able to see themselves when reading his book, and I think that’s a really great thing to see in a YA novel.

I liked that there were some really strong relationships featured in the book. Hiro is really close with his grandmother Maria, which was pleasing to read about. Astrid is quite close with her mum and the two grow even closer after her mum splits with Astrid’s dad because of an affair.

“I had no idea how I was supposed to act around Dad anymore. I’d tried being angry at him, but he was so sad and pathetic it was hard to stay mad.”

Although Astrid starts to ignore her friends throughout the novel, the friendship between Paige and Dev is really lovely to read. They’re really close and they know each other so well. An example of this is when Astrid finally works up the courage to tell her friends that her parents are splitting up, and it turns out they already knew. But they were waiting until she felt like she was ready to tell them herself.

Additionally, I loved that the environmentalism in the book didn’t feel too much like Lili was preaching to the reader. It was subtle and enjoyable, and Lili did a good job of describing all the gardening really clearly so that the reader could really imagine what they were doing.

Towards the end, I did feel like the plot was getting a bit absurd. The final chapters are something that would happen in a movie, but are a bit unrealistic in a YA novel.

I’d highly recommend this to readers who love young adult. The dialogue is relatable and snappy, the scattered footnotes provide a lot of enjoyment for the reader. Overall, this book is fun, charming and enjoyable, but it’s also got a lot of heart and hilarity.